IRAN - Apr 30 - Critic Of Nuclear Stance Held.

Hossein Mousavian, a former security official who played a leading role in Iran's negotiations with the EU over its nuclear programme, has been arrested. Muhammad Atrianfar, a prominent journalist close to Mousavian, confirmed he had been taken into custody from his Tehran home. The semi-official Fars news agency, affiliated to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, yesterday quoted an official as saying Mousavian was charged with espionage for "communicating with foreign agents and exchanging information with them" on the nuclear programme. The official rejected any early release for Mousavian. Iran has shown nervousness about prominent Iranians spending time abroad and Mousavian has travelled regularly since losing his post as chair of the foreign policy committee of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) in 2005. "The move exerts pressure because Mousavian was a link with some lobbies outside Iran", Atrianfar said. "This is to create a police atmosphere which is worrying". Mousavian is seen as close to Akbar Hashemi -Rafsanjani, the influential former president, and is -deputy head of the Centre for Strategic Research, a think-tank that briefs Iran's leaders. He played a central role in negotiations with the EU between 2003 and 2005, before he was removed as part of the team of Hassan Rowhani, who was replaced as secretary of the SNSC by Ali Larijani after the election in 2005 of President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad. Since then, Mousavian has been a prominent critic of Iran's diplomacy in the international stand-off over the atomic programme - although he has offered support to Larijani in talks with Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief. In January, Mousavian briefed Iranian journalists urging Iran to bargain over its "rights" to a nuclear fuel cycle and implied the country had no choice but to accept December's UN Security Council resolution, which imposed sanctions and demanded Iran suspend almost all nuclear activities.